The Retrofit: The Callistar 1.0

Chapter Twelve

QUINN

Quinn arrived on time for dinner, but stood arms crossed in the doorway leaned against the side. The picture of a sullen teenager being dragged on a vacation they’d thoroughly been against, but he was there.

In his opinion, there was no straightforward way he could fix it, so he should deal with it.

Watching Kira, she didn’t greet him when he came in. She just put something that looked like meatloaf on the pass-over section they’d been using as their makeshift table. Getting down some glasses, she gave herself water. “What do you want to drink?”

“Water, please,” Quinn shrugged off the doorway. He still failed to branch out regarding his beverage choices, not seeing why someone would consume empty calories.

The glass appeared in front of him, as did Kira’s uncharacteristic silence. He did not see her silence as a matter of concern, not yet. Taking the glass, he sipped and then cut into his meal. Just like the last time they’d eaten together, he treated the entire thing more like a science experiment than a meal. He combined different variations of flavor on his plate slowly before consuming each morsel one bite at a time.

“You know, if there’s anything you’d like to try, I can attempt to make it.” A look up revealed her attention fully on him, like it normally was. The woman’s unnerving habit of trying to make eye contact never ended.

“Okay.” A beat of silence before he said, “cheesecake.”

“I’ll look at some recipes tomorrow.”

“No hurry.” He continued to eat, focused mostly on the food. Thus far, it was among the more pleasant conversations they’d ever had.

“Probably do Camgen tomorrow night.” A quick search revealed it to be an Empyrean dish of mainly vegetables with thin strips of something resembling beef in it, a hearty dish.

“Alright, got any questions about the ship’s progress?” Quinn asked, making it abundantly clear that he did not know how to do small talk. His go-to topic being business.

“Not in particular. I do need to know when to recall the crew, but you’re welcome to extend your timeline.”

“Ship should be done in about... eight to twelve days, depending on how many more... episodes I have.” Quinn took another bite, chewing thoroughly. “Oh, you can tell Watson his body is going to be done growing in about two weeks.” The man thought to say that since the A.I. might want to know the status of that and it had alerted him to Kira’s distress.

“He can hear you.” She tapped behind her ear. “He doesn’t understand the meaning of privacy sometimes.”

“Well, there you have it then. Thanks for dinner.” One of his cleaning droids swept in to clean his mess.

“You’re welcome.” He caught a frown, the expression difficult to miss on such an expressive face, but he did not comment on it, just slipped back out.

There would continue to be no arguments throughout the week. Quinn showed up at six every evening to eat with her before vanishing. Without the gruff arguing, though, it really drove home how absolutely horrid he was at small talk. As in, he didn’t seem to be aware it was a thing people did.

Kira consistently asked him if he was working on his guitar, a subject that came up about his new hobbies he’d been looking into. She asked after Gary, and let the two little geckos chase each other around. On a night towards the end of the week when she told him a story about Alec, she reached across the table and touched his hand without thinking.

Mostly, Quinn wasn’t opposed to answering questions, but he still seemed to struggle to come up with ones of his own. She learned he practiced his guitar when he took personal time. When her hand touched his, he stiffened in surprise, but otherwise didn’t react. She’d draw it back almost as quickly as she extended it but it seemed difficult for her to keep from little gestures. He noticed it was small things still, a touch on the shoulder here, a wave, she’d bring him lunch and sometimes wait for a second to talk about his current project. It wasn’t with the interest of someone really worried about his progress, but the interest of someone interested in what made him tick. He’d find she smiled more than she had before, was open more. They were getting to know each other after all, he mused.

“I’ve been charting stars,” she told him at dinner one night. “There’s a nebula that I think would be beautiful to see, but we won’t pass by it. Do you want to come up to the Astrium with me?”

“Sure.”

He’d been planning on going back to work, but they were getting close to being complete. The crew would likely start arriving tomorrow and the finishing touches would be done by then. Mostly just cosmetics and stress testing now left.

When he accepted, he earned himself a broad smile. “I’ve been looking into more classical guitar music as well. There’s one I wanted to show you.”

“Sounds good.” The man hesitated, debating on whether to say something else. Kira watched him. Even with his limited ability to judge her expressions, his neural net picked up the rest. She was waiting. “How was your day?”

His research had revealed a list of questions one could ask to be polite.

A mote of nothing then she ducked her head, bobbing it a little as she swallowed, “It was good. I’ve been planning out our journey based on the projections of what is nearest. How was yours?”

“It was fine. I got the last few connections in and fired the engines. Everything is reading normal.” Quinn wasn’t sure what else, if anything, to say about what had been a fairly uneventful day for him.

“Well, what was your favorite part about it?”

“Oh, uh, huh… Dinner.” The net flashed in his eyes, reviewing the day. “What was yours?”

“The same, though I feel as if the reasons are different.”

“Entirely possible.” A notification flashed as it interpreted her tone. Teasing in nature. He did not elaborate on his answer, searching for another question that wasn’t superfluous.

Kira palmed her mouth, a giggle escaping. “You can ask whatever you want, Quinn. You don’t have to make small talk.”

“If I knew what I wanted to ask, I wouldn’t be thinking about it so hard,” Quinn said this, not to be patronizing, nor aggressive. Just a statement of fact. “What was it like growing up outside of a lab?” Because that was something he was kind of curious about.

“I don’t think I had a normal childhood.” For once, her focus shifted to her plate, pushing food across it. “But I traveled a lot, learned from a computer instead of a teacher. I saw much of the galaxy before my teens and was serving on a cruiser by the time I was fifteen. I had an odd sort of freedom but it restricted social growth because while I was exposed to many people I never stayed long with anyone other than Toke himself but I have a vague memory of a woman smiling at me who I think was my mother.”

Her fork scraped across porcelain as she added, “This crew has become my family. They are who I live for now and who I would do anything to defend, even including the Vicar.”

“Sounds more exciting than growing up in a lab.” He couldn’t imagine a life with that level of freedom and exploration. Nearly every hour of every day when he was young was planned out. From the food he ate, to what he learned, even what he did in his “free” time. His version of getting personal time was actually just the hours where he’d been encouraged to invent whatever he wanted.

“Well, you have the chance now.” She reached across the table to touch his hand. “You can go wherever you want and do whatever you’d like to do.”

“Not really.” No movement back, but he didn’t turn into her grip either. “If Paradigm finds out where I am, I will be… in trouble. I can do a lot of things, but they have more money, resources, and people. I won’t be able to avoid them forever.”

“We’ll make sure they can’t find you, Quinn.” She let go, the warmth of her touch a noted absence.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. So, what are you going to focus on once you’re on your own?”

“I’m going to try to fix everything, I guess. I thought I’d figured it out before. But I’ve realized the issue wasn’t resources, it’s people. So I am going to try to figure out how to get people to be better. I’m not sure how, but with enough time, I can figure it out.”

“You’d have to install implants in every person to do that,” she said. “Otherwise, the best way to make people better is simply to be a better person yourself.”

“I don’t think I could get away with putting microchips in everyone. I was just going to try to figure out how to address the root causes of large-scale conflicts.” Which is why he’d created Q-Cells, an almost endless battery. They could have addressed literally everyone’s energy consumption needs and people had turned them into bombs.

“That’s called emotions. You can take away every motivation of greed, and you’re still left with love and revenge. They will always argue. Wars have started over women before, you know?”

“It’s not emotions. It’s resources and cultural differences fanning them. If I can perfect a universal translator, figure out how to convert energy to matter, and make an energy source that can provide and take advantage of that. Then we can get every civilization to a post-scarcity state. With unlimited resources, there will be nothing to fight over. Especially if I make it so widespread that the greedy people who convince others to fight for them can’t find people willing to do that anymore,” Quinn said, looking at her a bit annoyed she argued with him about this. Also, inadvertently, revealing that despite his attempts at a gruff exterior, he was an idealist.

She shook her head. “Why did you come after me, Quinn? On the Eikos?”

“Because Watson informed me you’d been drugged,” the man responded with a shrug of his shoulders. “Unless you mean why did I care? In which case, I think I had a whole mental breakdown about it and you were there.”

“Do you think those men had any intention of doing anything remotely legal after they’d drugged me? They did not know who I was, only that I served aboard the Callistar. Greed did not motivate them, but other things, and so were you when you crossed over to save me.”

“So, are you trying to talk me out of trying to figure out how to fix these problems?” Quinn snapped at her with surly irritation. “I’ll figure something out for slimy bastards. Stick them in a holo chamber or something like that. Problem, solution, Kira.”

“So, if you somehow achieve galactic peace, what’s next?”

“I don’t know. I guess try to figure out how to live a normal life. That, or ascend into some kind of higher intelligence. Either or.”

“Well, you’re part of the way to your first goal.”

“If you say so.”

A drone slid in his mental triggers sending for it automatically. His plate was empty. He was done; it responded.

“Hela could teach you to cook. If you’re going to be alone, you might as well have good food.” Her suggestion, the quickness, a plausible explanation by the algorithm he was developing came up, she stalled.

“I... hmmm.” His plan had just been to set up a drone farm that would gather up what grew, reduce it to a nutrient slurry and then add some of the pre-manufactured flavorings. But Kira had shown him that homemade food tasted a lot better. “Suppose I could.”

“She’s a better teacher than me, much more patient.” Kira began clearing the table, a drone helped. He noticed she didn’t complain this time.

“I’ll bear that in mind.” Considering Kira’s patience was a bit all over the place, he wasn’t actually sure what to make of her statement. Either way, he followed her up to the Astrium with no complaining.

She used the scanner to enter, then approached the projection ring. He waited patiently for her by the open door. It had been a mark of his respect to her since he’d not included any kind of bypass for himself. Admittedly, he could still get it open if he really wanted to, but he couldn’t do it easily.

Once inside, he found himself pleased that she had apparently approved of his changes to the room, since it remained as he left it. With the lights dimmed, and the star projector on, it would be easy to think they just walked into a forested clearing. In fact, the new silence he’d brought to the ship really helped with the illusion.

“This was really thoughtful of you.” Manually programming the projector, her eyes were down. “I’d never really thought to change it before, but you made it perfect.”

“I just researched serene spaces and cross-referenced with things I knew you enjoyed. It didn’t take that long to figure out or put together.” He fidgeted, uncomfortable with the praise.

“A lot of people wouldn’t have bothered. It was really sweet. Though, I am sorry I tried to hug you afterwards, I was meaning it to be grateful.”

She sat next to him with those last words. A sweet, closed-mouth smile played across her face as music played behind her. Soft and smooth, the melody flowed over them.

“Yeah, I figured that out. Didn’t help at the moment, but… yeah.” She was very touchy feely, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Falling into the warmth and comfort of the familiarity of their routine, the mattress enveloped him.

When he’d first sat down, he tucked his knees up to his chest. His body language instinctively went to what cut him off the most, slowly relaxing as the music played and the stars twinkled above. Enough to lean back and let his head rest against the pillow. He was, in some ways, good company for this, since he had no issue sitting in silence. Temporarily disabling his neural link, there were enough distractions in the room.

Kira got up to make popcorn, making a game of trying to catch it in her mouth, which she wasn’t very good at, and she laughed when she missed.

It took some convincing to get him to try, and he proved to be incredibly inept at it. With his neural net disabled, his coordination was laughably poor. Though she quickly picked up that razzing him was not the best solution, since he stopped trying when she did.

“It’s friendly teasing Quinn. I don’t mean anything by it.”

“You had to mean something or you wouldn’t have said it,” Quinn grumped out. He’d not taken off in a huff or kicked her off her own ship this time, but she pushed things too far, too quickly.

“When the crew comes back, you’ll see that it is meant to be fun. I do it because I like you, Quinn.”

“Well, I’m trying not to overreact to things, but I don’t see how mocking me for not being good at something I’ve never tried before is good fun.” He certainly didn’t enjoy it. Especially since he did not know how to fire back without being rude.

“Because you’re supposed to do it back.” Putting the popcorn bucket aside, she sat upright, cross-legged from their game.

“Why would I do that?” Quinn said, confused, and relaying it without knowing in his furrowed brows. Insulting her back could go awry. It seemed like asking for trouble. Reaching up to rub at his temples, he couldn’t understand this at all.

“I have an idea. I can just show you.” Off like a bullet to the projector, she seemed pleased with herself.

“Okay?” Quinn frowned as he watched her. He’d thought about improving or replacing the machine, but had ultimately decided against it, mostly because any changes would have made it work differently. He didn’t think she would want to learn how to operate a new one.

An old earth movie started overhead, overtly romantic, but it had the subtext she was possibly trying to achieve. He watched the entire thing and when the credits started to roll, he looked her way. “So... People just insult each other until they decide they are in love? What is the message here?”

She laughed, and he didn’t, but it made him watch her. “They tease,” she corrected. “But it’s between friends and family too, though it is involved in flirting sometimes and lovers do it as well.”

“So, what you’re telling me, the man who has no family, no lovers, and...” There is a slight grimace as he mumbled something under his breath about having only one friend. “That people make fun of other people and it’s supposed to be endearing? Cause it seemed like they basically just hated each other until the plot said it was time for them to like each other.”

“Perhaps it was a poor example of them doing it in a kind way, but it’s not exactly like what happens between real people. The first time I did it was for friendly banter, not to be cruel to you.”

“Well, I can’t say I understand why friends would insult each other like that, and I will not risk anything by trying and fekking it up.”

“I mean, most people don’t have a temper like mine. You can still make friends without it, Quinn, if you want them.”

“Making one friend has been a real pain in the ass. Not sure I want more,” Quinn muttered. Once again, under his breath, but this time loud enough she might actually hear him.

“Did you call me a pain in the ass?” She grinned from ear to ear and had sat up out of the pillows to look at him so he’d see it properly.

The man glared at her when she said that. “I see what you did there. Yes, you have been a pain in my ass.”

That got her to laugh as she teased him. “But you’re fond of this pain in your ass?”

“I have no idea why.” He felt… annoyed that she got him to play her game simply by latching onto some of the more abrasive stuff he said.

“Me either, but I’m glad you’re here.” A gentle touch on his shoulder and then a release.

That got a snort from him, but he didn’t glare at her when she grazed his shoulder. She was whittling away at his defenses despite his efforts, and he wasn’t sure what to do about that. It was hard to view it as a bad thing, but it filled him with a deep sense of worry.

“Thought we might have a picnic lunch on the promenade tomorrow, if you can spare a few minutes.”

“The finishing work is mostly being handled by the drones. I only have to double-check the final product.” Machine precision had a 99.99% accuracy rating. It wouldn’t detect the .01% deviation if there was an issue.

“Oh good, I can make it a proper picnic then.”

Fortunately for Kira, Quinn still had his neural net off, so a definition of picnic didn’t automatically turn up for him to question the logistics of having one on a space station. Instead, he just shrugged his shoulders, agreeing to the lunch date without any complaints.

QUINN

Quinn returned to work since he had yet to fix his sleep schedule to anything resembling normal hours. He’d wake in the middle of a sleep cycle and finish a project at will. Still, when lunch rolled around, he arrived at the promenade as requested, his hands in his pocket as he waited for Kira to arrive. The area she’d referred to was an overhanging walkway over one of the largest storage units on the ship. One could walk a half mile around the outside to whatever point they’d entered at, meaning two rounds made a full mile. Below, he could see some of the mining equipment brought in from the Eikos being stored in the open space.

Kira came with a checkered cloth and a basket. She looked cheerful as always, but he’d not dived fully beneath the surface of the different smiles she wore externally. He noted them, and her moods, trying to sort out what meant what. “I got fresh grapes from hydroponics,” she said.

“There is also a vintner machine.” He wasn’t sure how much she’d actually looked at the additions. Part of putting together a ship capable of deep space exploration was making sure people had few reasons to miss civilized space. So why not include a machine to turn grapes into wine?

“Want me to name the first bottle after you?” She set down the basket and spread out the blanket, flicking the edges so it floated like fresh snow laying flat on the ground. A bit like a scene from the movie the night before.

“I didn’t spring for a label maker,” Quinn said, his voice so incredibly dry it made it hard to tell if it was a serious comment or if, just perhaps, he was cracking a joke.

“Was that a joke? Are you making jokes now?”

Quinn glared at her and then grunted. “There is no label maker since I didn’t see the point of one. But yes, I was trying to be funny.” Now that she’d called him out about it, he just felt awkward.

She still chuckled and went back to setting up the basket. There were plates nestled in the lid and silverware buckled in. “Just for that, I’ll color up a label myself.”

“I can’t tell if you’re saying that to annoy me, or if you are saying it to annoy me in a way I am supposed to find endearing,” Quinn informed her as he settled down on the blanket with her.

“Definitely the second one until you see what it looks like.” She brought sparkling juice and a flask of water for him with chunks of ice.

“I think I should be afraid.”

Her shoulders shook with unexpressed laughter. She served chicken parmesan in deep set plates. Laying out the grapes and a side of garlic bread, she sat, looking out at the stars, which had not changed during their stay there. “I’ve always wanted to do this.”

“Have a picnic on a space station?” Quinn looked at her quizzically, since it was a bit of an odd thing to have always wanted.

“Well, the space station wasn’t really a requirement. Usually picnics are in parks or other grassy areas, but I would have felt ridiculous asking any of the crew.” It meant she’d reserved her odd request just for him.

“Oh, so just the picnic part.” Quinn scratched his neck absently. “And you decided to invite me on this thing you’ve always wanted to do?” While he wasn’t openly calling her crazy, the look he gave suggested that was what he thought.

“Yes,” the confidence with which it came out and the way she grinned after solidified the crazy for him. “Is it so odd that I might invite you to do something that means something to me?”

“Little bit. But not so much as it did in the past.” He still didn’t quite get why she had practically forced a friendship upon him, but he was, at the very least, not having another breakdown over it.

He focused on eating his meal. A thought occurred to him and he frowned, trying to push it aside. Eventually, he realized he should say it, but he didn’t want to. So much like her, he hemmed and hawed rather than communicating.

“Max will arrive tomorrow,” she informed him after another beat. “He is going to accompany me onto the Eikos while I finish out the paperwork for our stay.”

“The vicar? Why am I not surprised he is the first one coming back?” Quinn snorted. He remembered the man from their brief meeting and honestly, if he’d had to guess which member of the crew would have harassed him the most, it would have been the priest.

“He was not going to be on this trip originally, but he is nothing if not punctual.”

“Aye, I suppose he is at that,” he agreed with a nod of his head. “I looked up a list of questions you can ask to make small talk. They all seemed a bit silly, like asking who you would choose to have dinner with.”

“Is it supposed to be the one where you can have dinner with anyone dead or alive?” Popping in a grape, it let out an audible pop as she bit down.

“Yeah, I think it is.”

“It’s meant to be a sort of test to see where your values lie,” she informed him. “Not a true test, but just a way to feel someone out. If they say a family member, then you know that’s something important to them. If they say someone famous, it depends on what they’re famous for, and it shows you what appeals to them.”

Kira peered over as if she still considered it. She asked him instead of answering, “Did you come up with an answer to it?”

“Not really. I’ve only ever eaten a meal with you, so I suppose you’d be my answer.” It was a fairly straightforward bit of thinking for him.

“It’s less of a compliment when you put it like that.”

“If you say so.” He finished eating, but lingered, looking her way, apparently curious to hear her answer.

“I don’t know myself. I did not meet my parents and I’m not sure I would want to. There’s no one out there that I think holds any great wisdom about the universe who hasn’t already said what they have to say...”

Quinn had no great insight to offer to Kira as she puzzled herself over the question. His response had been based mostly on the fact that she was the only person whose company he came close to enjoying, not that he would ever admit that aloud.

“Toke.” She finally decided on, but there was more to it. “Before he took me in. I would like to know the man he is to a stranger, to judge for myself.”

“Hmmm, I guess I can understand that.” He scratched at his nose. He would like to know what some of his researchers were like off of work. Or, he might have once long ago. These days, it was hard to see them as anything other than jailors who’d exploited him.

“I don’t-” Kira took a sharp breath, assuming his regular defensive position, arms around her knees, something he noted not absently but with all his being. “I don’t think Toke is necessarily bad, but I do not think he is as good as I once believed him to be, not that I’ve led a life without consequence, either.”

“I mean, based on what I’ve read about him, by the numbers, he breaks about even.”

“Do you research everyone you meet?”

“Of course.”

“Well, do you think of me differently after getting to know me?”

“I think of you the same way. I just feel differently about it now.”

“Well, if that isn’t indifferent,” she snorted, and released her feet, leaning back on her palms.

“It isn’t indifferent.” He looked her way and scowled. “It’s... Complicated.” That was the best way to think about it. “But clearly it isn’t indifferent or I wouldn’t be here.”

“I shouldn’t have been so flagrant about it then, I apologize.”

“You’re the closest thing to a friend I’ve ever made.”

“I consider you a friend as well, Quinn.”

“Well, alright then.” If she was very observant, she might notice that an honest to God smile played at the corner of his lips. Though he did his damndest to hide it.

Her smile grew impossibly wider, she’d had one the whole conversation. “Grumble all you want. You can’t change my mind on the matter.”

“Hey, I am pointedly not arguing, unlike some people I know.” The man fired back with a slight laugh, despite himself, for the first time, actually seeing some humor in her teasing. The huge smile on her face did enough to soften her voice that he didn’t even realize it was teasing.

“You wouldn’t like me if I didn’t argue with you,” she shot back, keeping her eyes on him.

“Maybe, you are certainly the only person I know who is stubborn enough to force the issue every time.” He glanced her way, noticing her staring, and then hid his face again. Smiling in amusement.

“Someone’s gotta push your buttons.” Picking up her plate and giving him a slight reprieve, she reached out to load his as well, going to her knees to load things into the basket.

“Yeah, maybe.” Getting to his feet, his expression back to the more customary scowl.

“Yes, maybe.”

Attempting to fold a blanket meant for a rather gigantic bed turned into a comical thing on Kira’s part. Quinn watched for a moment as she tried to gather the edges. Seeing it horribly aligned, he stepped forward with a sigh and took an edge from her.

“Was I not doing a good enough job?” Kira teased.

“It wasn’t straight.”

She laughed, and they folded it together. It brought him close enough for it to be too loud, and yet it was appealing. Hearing it was not abrasive, but enjoyable. Stepping back as soon as she had a hold of it he tucked his hands in his pockets.

Kira tucked the blanket under one arm and collected the basket with the other, hooking it in the crook of her elbow. “Are you free for the afternoon as well?”

“I guess.”

“I was going to go for a swim if you’d like to join me? There’s a shallow end until you get used to the depths. It’s on the Eikos…”

“A swim?” There was that familiar flash of blue. “Oh...” He said as he cocked his head, figuring out what all was involved. A slightly worried expression colored his features. “I don’t know how to swim.”

“I can show you, and you can stay where you can stand easily.”

“I... fiiiine.” Quinn sighed. Maybe she’d well and truly worn him down, he wasn’t sure. But he knew part of it was he didn’t want her going there alone. Never again.